St. Paul's Catholic Church (1864–2004)

German Catholic parish of the west end · organized 1864–65 · closed 2004, building razed · not the Lutheran St. Paul's of 1837

Founding: In the winter of 1864–65 about thirty-five German-speaking Catholic families of the city's west end gathered at the Rekers Brothers' residence and organized a parish of their own, distinct from St. Mary's downtown. Blanchard's 1898 history of the diocese gives the organization to the winter of 1864 and the parish's first church to the year following; the genealogical society's diocesan list dates the parish 1865. Both datings stand in the record and are printed here as they stand.

Building line: The first church was a frame building at Griffith and Jefferson Streets, the lot bought for $1,100 and the building raised for $3,700. The parish's permanent church rose on the northeast corner of Griffith and Washington Boulevard, at 416 West Washington Boulevard: begun in 1886, its cornerstone laid by Bishop Rademacher of Nashville, and dedicated by Bishop Dwenger on the first Sunday of November 1887, at a cost of about $50,000. Blanchard counted 185 families in the parish in 1898. After the closing, the church stood empty for years before it was razed.

People and end: The parish's pastors were few. The city directory of 1873–74 names the Rev. Edward Koenig; the Sentinel's 1904 church roster names the Rev. H. F. J. Kroll; and a lifelong parishioner's account published in the Fort Wayne Reader at the building's demolition holds that in the church's first ninety-nine years it had only three pastors — Koenig, Monsignor H. J. Kroll, and Monsignor John F. Nadolny. The parish closed in 2004, its remaining members dispersing, some of them to St. Patrick's. A decade earlier the parishioners had refused to leave the building when its furnace failed; the Reader's account, written on the eve of demolition, is the parish's fullest surviving obituary.

Sources:

1. Blanchard, History of the Catholic Church in Indiana (1898), Fort Wayne parish sketches (organization, buildings, 185 families), read first-hand.
2. Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, church list: "St. Paul's Catholic Church, Wayne Township, 1864–2004, German Catholic."
3. Diocese of Fort Wayne parish list (RootsWeb transcription): "Est. 1865; 416 W. Washington Blvd.; the parish was recently closed and the building was razed."
4. Fort Wayne Reader, demolition account (three pastors in ninety-nine years; the dispersal to St. Patrick's).
5. Fort Wayne Sentinel, 15 October 1904 (Rev. H. F. J. Kroll, pastor).